Cowboy Summer - 23. Epilogue - Get Your Cowboy On, All Year Round

“Ladies and Gentlemen, next outta the gate…” The announcer had a strong mid-western accent and had no trouble in letting everyone know how he felt about each run. He had cheered and hollered through the speakers just as much as anyone else in the crowd as the events had played out on the big screens, “The first talent from northern California, Jase Mauney! Jase has been doing pretty well this season in the roping and wrestling competitions and he should be putting on a pretty good show for us tonight…” Jase rolled his eyes and Sugar snorted as though she understood what was said, “…hazing for Jase is a young man you guys are gonna wanna watch for later on. We’ll see this same pair with their roles reversed in a little while. I don’t know what they’re putting in the water in Plumas county but make some noise for the NRA’s rookie cowboy of the year, Rhyder Markey!”

“Huh, can you believe they actually say things like that?” Rhyder shifted in his saddle as the crowd whooped and shouted, “I thought we were just a couple of no good cowboys running down a steer.”

Jase laughed.

They ran the steer down the way they liked too, and Samson held a great line and kept the little cow in the right place for Jase to jump off and wrestle him down. He had a touch of trouble getting him off his feet, but he made a very good time. Rhyder trotted back, leading Sugar, and handed off the reins to Jase.

“You still ain’t winning that buckle.”

“Getting’ tired of your cocky confidence pretty boy.” But Jase grinned, “You ain’t won yet.”

“And when was the last time you beat me?” Rhyder settled back in his saddle, flexing his thighs and getting Samson to walk in neat little circles in the dirt of the arena.

“I beat you at the invitational last month you jackass!” Jase swatted Samson’s flank, “Go on! Git!”

In the stands, Sam leant back in his seat with a grin. No one in the seats around him, flicking through their programs or listening to the announcer could believe the young man winning blue rosettes and belt buckles all over the country was still only nineteen, and had only been riding for a year and a half. It made Sam proud of the kid who he had taken jokingly in quiet moments to referring to as his ‘little brother’ when he did well in the rodeo. But it made him just as proud to see Caleb had been right, and Rhyder was a true cowboy. He tipped his hat, he was polite, he wore his Wranglers and they made him look good. He always made time to wave at the fans and smile at the film crews, touching the brim of his hat for the big screens. He loved his horses more than anyone Sam had ever known, spent more hours in the stable and in the saddle than he did doing anything else. And they returned that love and adoration. Shura and Samson would work tirelessly for Rhyder, do anything he asked, sometimes almost before he asked it, and it helped the boy win belt buckles, rosettes, and big prize money all over the place. Sam joked that Rhyder was only still doing the college rodeos for fun and tuition.

“And the last wrestle of the day cowboys and cowgirls! You saw him win the tie-down roping with his hands behind his back, the kid cowboy making it big in California, Rhyder Markey!”

Rhyder shook his head and saw Jase’s cheeky smile. He’d traded horses out back of the chutes, and now Shura’s heartbeat was echoing in time with his own. He barely held the reins, barely moved his heels, just sat there connected to his horse and looked straight ahead through the gap between Shura’s long ears. When they first met him, some people still scoffed and sneered when they saw he didn’t wear spurs, and Rhyder had gotten rather pleased at watching those people scrape their jaws from the floor when he floored and thrashed their times in the ring.

Now the klaxon was sounding, the steer was loose, and Shura bolted forwards at the slightest touch, flying across the dirt. Rhyder didn’t need to look, didn’t need to count, didn’t need to direct the horse at all. He let go of the reins and leapt.

“And there’s the trademark jump! Rhyder Markey landing on his feet and he’s done it!” The announcer barely had the time to speak, because Rhyder grabbed both horns, lifted, twisted and dropped. “A beautiful run by the boy from California! There’s the time on the clock ladies and gents… at three point two eight it puts him in first place for the end of the event. Mister Markey has put himself up there on the Jack Daniels high score board ahead of both his hazing partner and last year’s world champion to win this year’s Winter Tri-State Rodeo! Rhyder Markey and his horse are up for Show Champion with a collection of top three places under their belt, and here’s hoping he might smile for the cameras down behind the chutes…”

Rhyder tapped Jase’s fist as he took back the reins, and pressed the side of his face against Shura’s strong neck. The big quarter horse snorted gently, velvet nose in his palm.

“Thanks bud.” Rhyder exhaled, feeling his adrenaline losing the battle to make his heart race as his matched himself back to Shura. The horse was always so calm, “We did great.”

The horse events were pretty much over, the bull riders were going to be in next to give the crowd a massive boost before the ceremonies and the Show Champion round. Shura had enough mixed colour fancy rosettes hanging up with his tack to make a blanket. Rhyder stopped to wonder if Caleb had known all along how good his horse was, then shook his head. Knowing Caleb, the native man had gotten the whole thing planned out right from the start.

Rhyder rolled his shoulders as he saw the approach of the behind the chutes interviewer and cameraman and tried not to groan. He’d been interviewed after a ride by this one before, and the Yankee was never half as interested in the riding or the scores as he was in Rhyder’s status as a gay rodeo cowboy. Moreta had told him he was a role model, and Rhyder had sighed. Jase was gay too, but no one seemed to care. After the first, and technically the last, time he’d been caught on the big screens at a national rodeo kissing Bryce, he’d been the poster child for the acceptance of gay people in rodeo culture. Of course, Bryce hadn’t escaped either, but he was working the circuit, trying to get the sort of reputation and points score he would need to make it into the PBR in a couple of year’s time.

First love was first love; unavoidable and inescapable. Rhyder was sure a tiny piece of him would love Bryce for as long as he lived, almost but not quite in the same way he loved Jase. They’d not made it quite as far as a year as a couple, and Bryce had gotten early entrance into a southern university specialising in bull riding. They had both known they wouldn’t survive the distance, so they hadn’t tried. It would have been nice to see Bryce at the Tri-State, but he’d sent a text earlier in the week with his apologies. He’d taken a bad fall off a bull during a practice session and had been lain up by the doctor for a week with hot and cold compresses and the threat of permanently damaging a strained muscle if he tried to ride too soon.

Rhyder saw the camera approaching and felt his phone bleep at him from his boot. He checked the text before the Yankee got to him.

I can see you from here. Remember to smile babe. I love you xxx

Rhyder grinned, and put on his best big smile for the interview.

“Well here we are out the back of the ring with Rhyder Markey who has just won the Tri-State bulldogging competition.” Rhyder was always shocked by how fast most of the TV and news crews spoke, “Tell us Rhyder, how does this feel on top of your other top place rankings?”

“It feels great, and I love the fact that I get the opportunity to do well for the people who put me here,” Rhyder grinned as he rattled off his short but ever growing list of sponsors, “Course, it’s mostly Shura.”

“So your horse is the talented one?”

Shura snorted and shook his head in agreement.

“Like I can run that fast.” Rhyder rubbed the dapple grey face with a smile.

“Tell us,” And here was the inevitable question, “How has it been for you this past year, breaking into professional rodeo as not only a foreigner and a college student but also as an openly gay man?”

Rhyder remember the text and made sure he smiled.

“I think it’s no harder for me than it is for anyone. There’s guys here who have been riding all their lives, and I respect that. It’s great to work alongside so many great talents. I work hard and I try my best and at the end of the day, that’s what the judges care about.”

“And what about the other riders? It’s hardly a secret there aren’t many openly gay rodeo cowboys.”

He wanted to say ‘fuck off’, he wanted to tell the man it didn’t matter if he was gay or not because he was still beating out everyone for the top spots, he wanted to shake his head and sigh at the small mindedness of the question, but he didn’t.

“I ain’t sure they mind too much. After all, the only threat I am to them is out there on the dirt.” He turned to the camera, “See babe, I can be nice. Love you.”

Rhyder heard his boyfriend’s whoop all the way from the stands. So did everyone else.

In the end, Shura got reserve champion and a rosette sash with white, blue, yellow, red and silver bits in it, and Rhydian waved his hat in his hand when he accepted two gold and two silver buckles. Tri-State rodeo was one of those gave their cowboy’s giant novelty cheques and Rhyder smiled and laughed, posed for the promotion photographer and shook hands with the man from Jack Daniels and the sponsor from Ford. One of the perks of the Tri-State that Sam had been most enthusiastic about was the new Ford trucks the top two spots would get, and expect to be seen in. Rhyder had no problem driving the damn thing to ever rodeo he ever went to for the next decade.

Rhyder had bought a truck for three thousand dollars, using the money he’d won at the County Open, and a year and a half later what had been a beat up and unreliable piece of shit was basically a slightly more beat up piece of shit with ruined gears because Rhyder had learnt to drive in it, and there at had a lot of trial and error sort of stuff when he’d first attached the trailer. When Rhyder thanked the Ford representative, he meant it, because he was sick of having to go and pick up his boyfriend in a truck that had about as much chance of starting properly as Rhyder did at trying to remember where to put his feet when he danced. When the lights went down a little and the cheering became less loud, he stuffed the cheques under his arm and walked with Shura at his shoulder out of the ring.

“Reserve champion buddy!” Jase punched his shoulder, which nearly caused him to drop all the stuff he was holding, “Congrats pretty boy.”

“Well done for you too.” Rhyder smiled, but he was being distracted by the heat of Shura at his side, the big horse pressing against him, radiating love.

“You gonna be able to do it all over again next week wearing yellow?” Rhydian grinned widely at Morris, standing with his thumbs hooked into his belt, standing with a bunch of guys and girls from the FRCC rodeo squad, “Well done Rhyder.”

“Thanks sir.”

“How much did you win Rhy?” One of his team mates asked, his voice touched by only a hint of jealousy.

“Enough to buy beer,” The young man scowled, “Except I keep forgetting I moved to a country where you aren’t allowed to drink until you’re old. See you guys later.”

Cowboy and horse walked together away from the stands, the carnival, the show ring and most of the people to the exercise rings, stables and horse-based parking. Samson brayed to Shura when they got into view and Caleb looked up from his papers and smiled.

“How is he?” Rhydian checked the big chestnut power-house of a horse over with his hands, “I hated I didn’t have time to cool him down properly.”

“I walked him round and rubbed him down. He’s been great. I think he likes getting out and being used for more stuff.” Caleb stood, folding all the accounts papers into their folder, “I saw up there on the screens. Very good.”

“Thanks Cay.” Rhyder smiled to himself. Open praise from Caleb was still rare, would always be so, but where whoops and cheers from Jase and Sam were expected, Rhyder knew Caleb’s measured tone and his small words meant more. He felt everything very strongly.

“What you said to that camera though was brave.”

Rhydian chuckled. Being able to hear the man he loved shout in delight at what he’d said had been a great kick to the ego.

“How are the two of you getting along? I noticed he seems to have a pretty permanent presence in your bedroom now. His stuff is all over your bathroom too.”

“And what’ve you been doing in my bathroom Cay?”

It had been a shock to get back to Iron Hill Lake, dead tired from the flight to find all his stuff gone. Rhyder had clattered back down the stairs in a mad panic, his tired brain shouting to him it was some colossal joke and they had never been expecting him back, to be told now he was going to be basically living there he’d been moved into Caleb and Sam’s wing of the house. He’d installed his life into the rather larger room across the hall from Caleb and Sam and had been delighted to get his own, very tiny but fully functioning en-suite bathroom.

“Er…” Caleb’s cheeks coloured as Rhyder looked at him and the young cowboy laughed and punched his friend on the arm.

“And I wondered why I was having to go and buy condoms again so soon! You bastard.”

“I am not taking all the blame for that.”

“No, but I can rib Sam about it later.”

They rubbed and rugged the horses, and Samson and Shura walked quietly with them from their prep spot by the trucks and the trailer out to the paddocks and loose boxes the cowboy’s used when they were performing at the rodeo. It wasn’t due to rain, so both horses were turned out into the little paddock Rhyder had rented for the duration. He stashed all his winnings in the trailer, changed the buckle on his belt for the gold bulldogging champion one and they went back out to the main rodeo. Rhyder put on his best smile for fans and cameras, and when he saw the man he loved, ‘his best smile’ was no longer enough.

“Babe!” His boyfriend’s grin was as big as his was. His brown eyes shone under his cream felt hat. “You looked awesome out there.”

Rhyder felt himself blushing and fiddled with the hem of his new shirt. It had been a gift.

“Yeah?” He wrapped his arm around Beau’s waist as his boyfriend snuck an arm over his shoulders. Beau was a little bit taller than him, but Rhyder didn’t mind at all.

“Sod off, you know you’re fuckin’ pretty…” Beau murmured softly, lips brushing his cheek. Rhyder dug his fingers into Beau’s ribs. “Gold belt buckles look good on you.”

“You’re gonna make his head swell with all that talk,” Sam said, walking up to where they stood wrapped around each other, “I always said you were too nice to him.”

“You reckon?” Beau grinned at Sam.

It had taken a little while for his boyfriend to warm up to the idea of Sam and Caleb, and Jase, but after five months Beau was able to joke and laugh with them as easily as Rhyder did. It helped that he and Sam had being Southern in common, and the Louisiana equine vet in training had become a permanent part of Rhyder’s life. Beau was twenty one, a rodeo fan through and through, and had been interested in working with horses and cowboy’s on the circuit.

They’d met at a rodeo-for-Yankees show hosted outside of New York, and Rhyder had hoped he could convince the beautiful Southern man to move out west with him, only to discover Beau was on track to start at the horse clinic about ten miles out of town the following week. After a month Beau had called it fate and they’d not spent more than a few days apart since.

“The guys from Ford wanna talk to you babe,” Beau’s arm around his shoulders was warm, turning him towards the concourse where the huge Ford stand was. Now that Rhyder wasn’t hyped up he was feeling the cold. Snow would be thick on the ground still when they finally got home. The number of jackets he’d bought at shows because he was rubbish at packing… Beau noticed his shiver and pulled his cowboy in close, knocking their hats together, “They’re shipping out tomorrow and they wanna know what colour you want your truck. They might have to deliver one.”

“Rhyder Markey!” Stan, the man from Ford, was leaning against the bonnet of a new F150 when they arrived, “You come to tell us you need some custom colour and we’ll have to ship one of these beauts out to the middle of nowhere where you insist on living?” He laughed, “Your boyfriend here was telling us how pleased you were. Apparently your old truck isn’t so reliable?”

“You could say that,” Rhyder had every intention of calling a haulage company in the morning and having the truck scrapped. It had broken down three times on the drive down here and had been nothing but a problem child from day one, “So I get to drive one of these off your stand?”

“The new F one fifty with ecoboost. Yup. All yours bud. But you drive it to all your rodeos from here on out.”

“No problem.”

“What colour do you want?” Stan asked.

Rhyder grinned and turned to his boyfriend.

“You choose babe. You know I don’t mind as long as all four wheels work and the stick shift actually does something.”

Beau grinned and kissed him, and Rhyder took full advantage of it.

“You got one in hot-rod red?”

*

As good as the rodeo circuit was, there was nothing like being home. Shura and Samson felt it too, the horses relaxing into their routine again, back in the fields they called home. As good as it was with the big two horse trailer, it was nice to be back on solid ground. Rhyder unpacked in his usual way, which was to dump his kit bag out and leave it in a heap on the bed. He’d spent six months living on site at FRCC before moving back to Iron Hill Lake with the horses.

Over spring break he’d helped Caleb build a new stable yard next to the other one as the business had expanded. More guests, more stop overs, and now the introduction of a training program. Shura and Samson had gotten so much attention Caleb had bought the foal Shura’s sister had birthed from Bryce’s mother. As dealing with the guests became more and more of Sam’s responsibility, Rhyder split his time when he wasn’t training, at college or at rodeo in between helping out at the ranch and working with Caleb in the training ring. People were even starting to bring them horses to start up using Caleb’s special touch. Rhyder didn’t think it would be long until they started getting horses with issues too.

Now he found a blue exercise sheet and took Shura’s carved leather saddle to the loose box. The big dapple horse pressed his nose against Rhyder’s face, and the boy swore he could almost hear the quarter horse he loved thinking. They tacked up, turned out and went for a ride.

The ground was hard and cold, so Rhyder had gone for shock absorbing boots as well as the exercise sheet for Shura, wrapping the dapple horse up in what he likes to think of as his winter sweater set. It wasn’t often he got the chance to hack out on his own anymore. Between the guests, riding with Sam and Caleb, which was always awesome, training for rodeo, riding with the rodeo crew and riding with Beau, a thing so excellent it should have been illegal, he didn’t get out much on his own. But everyone else was unpacking, Beau was in the shower and didn’t want to be disturbed this time, so Rhyder was free.

He and Shura walked like they were made of the same stuff, Rhyder kept a hand on the reins and was light on the leg as they passed through the paddocks. At the foot of the gentle slope, boy and horse both tensed, and Rhyder leant forwards, slapped the reins, squeezed with his knees and clicked his tongue. Shura bunched his muscles, and then leapt forwards like a steer from the chutes. They went at a full pelt gallop up the slope. It was early evening, it was cold, and Rhyder couldn’t think of a better place to be than in a field with his horse, knowing when he got back down to the ranch, there would be dinner, bed and boyfriend, and all of them would be hot.

“We did good didn’t we buddy?” He patted Shura’s neck, taking his feet from the stirrups as they began to walk gently towards home.

The horse snorted in response and shook out his mane. His skin shivered on his exposed shoulders.

“It’ll be summer soon enough Shura. We can swim in the lake again.”

The horse whinnied. Rhyder had never seen his boyfriend swim, the lake had been partially frozen when they’d first gotten together, and it hadn’t warmed up much since. It would be summer soon enough. Summer, his third summer in the land of horses and rodeo, his first summer with his boyfriend. He would graduate in the coming summer and do his best to make a living from rodeo and horse training. This summer his parents were going to come and visit, finally, and this time, Rhyder didn’t think his mum was going to try and force him to come back.

Iron Hill Lake ranch house made it back into his line of sight, he could make out Beau standing on the back porch waiting for him, probably with a mug of tea, and Rhyder knew he was home for good.